Dilemma between Freedom and Safety： Gun Control in America

编者按：本文首次发布于“美国华人”微信公众号（在自由与安全之间：美国人的枪），作者殷余民。英文版首次发布于GetRealAmerica.org，由侯健羽翻译。This article was first published on WeChat media "Chinese Americans" in Chinese by Yumin Yin. The English version was first published on GetRealAmerica.org, translated by Jianyu Hou. 本文仅代表作者观点，不代表APAPA俄亥俄和OCAA官方立场。文中图片均来自网络，版权归原制作者。

Twenty years ago, when I first came to America, what I loved it most was its freedom. At that time, I could pick up friends at the exit of airplane, and dropped them off on the airplane. The movies always told us that once there was a hijack, just do what hijackers wanted you to do and you would be safe. However, 9/11 has changed everything. The U.S. government soon gained control of security check points at the airports and expanded the scale of the National Security Agency. They started to take advantage of the loopholes of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to monitor foreigners as well as U.S. citizens with various excuses. We have to wait in the long lines to pass the security check, including taking off shoes and body search. For the sake of safty, we’ve lost freedom!

However, in the last two decades, some people have gained more freedom to buy and carry guns. The gun control act against assault weapons passed in 1994 expired ten years later due to the Congress’ inaction. In February 2017, U.S. Senate took away the right to conduct mental health background check by Social Security Administration entitled during Obama’s administration. With the approval of then newly elected President Trump, about 750,000 people with mental problems are allowed to purchase guns. It’s becoming easier for Americans to buy and carry guns.

During the past twenty years, average over 30,000 Americans were killed by guns every year, two thirds of them by suicide and one third by others. Some people may say that it’s their freedom to kill themselves. But even in today, it’s illegal to conduct euthanasia in most of the States. The victims of mass shootings in Las Vegas hotel and at Florida school campus were only small portion of the total gun deaths.

Comparison of gun deaths between the U.S. and Australia (source: www.gunpolicy.org)

The diagram above shows the dramatic decline in gun deaths in the ten years after the 1994 gun control act passed in the U.S., which dropped one third. Since 2004 when the act expired, the death rate by gun violence has levelled off or even climbed up a little . Comparing to Australia where they started gun control since 1996, the death rate by gun violence in America remains high, while Australia’s gun death rate dropped from one quarter to one tenth of the U.S. rate in the past twenty years.

Let's take a look at the 2014 gun death statitics. The total gun death for that year was 33,594 with detailed data below.

Suicide by gun: 21,386 (the No. 1 cause of suicide death)

Killed by police: 442 (which have been judged to be in self-defense by police, otherwise entered in the murder data)

Killed by self-defense civilians: 277 (which have been judged to be self-defense, otherwise entered in the murder data)

Accident (mistake): 461 (including 2 policemen)

Murders by gun: 11,008 total, of which about 8,500-9,000 are gang-related murders

Others (including non-gang-related murders, large-scale shootings, improper self-defense, etc.): 2,000-3,000, including 48 police officers

Data Resources: CDC: www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats; FBI: ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2014/crime-in-the-u.s.-2014 (The 2014 data is the latest available.)

The shocking statistics reflected the massacres happened in poor areas, churches, hotels, and schools, etc. In order to keep the freedom of carrying guns, we’ve lost the sense of security and a lot of innocent lives!

On social media, there are a lot of debates on the gun issues. To support gun control or not, it seems so hard for people to persuade each other, which is normal, since we have different backgrounds and weigh freedom and safety from different perspectives.

I don’t want to get involved in endless debates on gun control, because I know each side has its logic and reason. I just think that we should think about it carefully, and try to find the balance between freedom and safety. If we could, give up some freedom for the sake of safety.

If you support gun control, please sign the petition for restoring the 1994 federal assault weapons ban through the link below.

Petition URL: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/restore-1994-federal-assault-weapons-ban

You can also join the national rallies ormarches below to show your support for the gun control movement.

Image source: Woman's March Youth EMPOWER

Image source: March for our lives

A poem from Dan Qi:

Save our children!

Dan Qi （02/25/2018）

When the gunman entered the campus,

The bullets were blind.

They could not distinguish the children of Republicans and Democrats.

After the mass shooting,

Our children fell down.

Bleeding to death.

For our children,

Please stop playing politics and choose peace.

When confronting with fatal weapons,

How to protect our children?

The 2nd Amendment cannot be revised,

But the weapons have been developed.

The government had no nuclear weapons in the past,

Nowadays, how can you fight the government with your guns?

To protect yourselves with guns, how sad it is.

Guns are out of control.

Decent people won’t shoot improperly even though they own guns,

While the evil abuse the power of guns.

For our children, please support gun control!

For our children, please put down your weapons!

(The end)

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